With a polarization of wealth squeezing out the middle class, new residents have less time and need for local government services, leaving a city a dying political community.
People's Republic of Cambridge?
Today, Cambridge remains resolutely liberal, but many--including former mayor Francis H. Duehay '55--wonder whether the activism that made the city famous is on the decline.
"I do not see the same degree of activism that there was once around local issues," Duehay says.
One explanation suggests that Cambridge's fading activism has occurred because of the lack of a mobilizing issue.
According to Glenn S. Koocher '71, host of the Cambridge political talk show program "Cambridge Inside-Out," rent control was the last issue to capture the constituency.
Instituted in Cambridge in 1969, rent control was a polarizing issue in local politics before it was narrowly defeated in a statewide referendum in 1994.
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